The present invention relates to a structure for interlocking a female connector with a male connector fitting therein.
As the prior art, various types of structures for interlocking connectors have been known, and one example is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In this structure for interlocking connectors, one connector housing (base) 23 has a lockable lug 27 formed on the outer surface thereof. The other connector housing 24 has a lock arm 25 that is formed integral with a pawl 26 capable of engaging with the lockable lug 27, wherein elastically deformable hinge-shaped feet 37 secure the lock arm 25 to an outer surface of the other housing 24. This connector housing 24 also has a push lever 28 formed on the rear end of the lock arm 25, to be disposed rearwardly of hinge-shaped feet 37. In these figures of the drawings, the reference numeral 30 denotes post contacts that are insert-molded in the connector housing (base) 23 so as to penetrate it, and the numeral 32 denotes socket contacts for electrical connection with the post contacts 30. Each socket contact 32 is crimped on a wire end 31 before being put in a receptacle cavity 29 of the connector housing 24.
The prior art locking system is simple in structure and easy to connect and disconnect the housings 23 and 24 to or from each other, enabling wide use for internal electrical connections within various electronic devices or apparatuses.
The interlocking portions of the connectors in the described prior art structure are not necessarily sufficient in their mutual retention and in their own mechanical strength. The prior art structure has thus often failed to ensure reliable electrical connections, when used in certain vibrating machines such as automobiles. xe2x80x98Snap-fitxe2x80x99 feeling has scarcely been produced when engaging the lockable lug 27 with the lock arm 25, so that unfortunately their mutual connection has considerably been difficult to confirm from outside. If however the mutual retention and mechanical strength of those lug 27 and arm 25 in the connectors are designed to be excessively high, then they could not easily engage with or disengage from each other.
As seen in FIG. 7 showing the above structure in use, a gap xe2x80x98Sxe2x80x99 is present between the push lever 28 and the outer surface of the connector housing 24, with the push lever being formed as a rear end portion of the lock arm 25 as mentioned above. Due to such a gap, electric wire ends involved in adjacent harnesses have often pressed undesirably the push lever 28 and unlock the lockable lug 27 out of the lock arm 25. This drawback has been most prominent in case of arranging a number of electric wire ends within a narrow space such as those available in automobiles. In addition, electric wire ends of the neighboring harnesses have sometimes got in the gap xe2x80x98Sxe2x80x99 to be jammed therein, accidentally catching the push lever 28 and hindering the wiring operations.
The present invention was made in view of the drawbacks inherent in the prior art structure. An object of the invention is therefore to provide an improved structure for interlocking electric connectors with each other, the improvement residing in that a push lever in the structure is of an increased rigidity to moderately enforce mutual retention and raise mechanical strength of the connectors. The improvement has also to be such that xe2x80x98snap-fittingxe2x80x99 of said connectors can surely be felt by a user or operator when they mate one another, and foreign wires are protected from being got caught in the push lever.
In order to achieve the object, the present invention provides a structure for interlocking connectors with each other, the connectors being a male connector and a female connector to be fitted thereon, the structure comprising a housing of one of the connectors, and a lockable lug formed on an outer surface of the one connector. The structure further comprises a housing of the other connector, and a lock arm integral with a pawl corresponding to and engageable with the lockable lug, the lock arm being formed on an outer surface of the other connector housing. The structure still further comprises a pair of elastically deformable hinge-shaped feet having one end integral with the other connector housing and having another end continuing from the lock arm, and a push lever having lateral ends formed integral with a rear end of the lock arm extending rearwardly beyond the hinge-shaped feet. Characteristically, the structure yet still further comprises a pair of bridging members that continue from opposite side walls of the other connector housing so as to be integral with the lateral ends of the push lever such that an arch-shaped or gate-shaped lock guard portion is provided above the other connector housing.
Each of the bridging members disposed beside the push lever may be of a curved shape.
In the above interlocking structure, all the hinge-shaped feet and the pair of bridging members may be designed to be of a moderate bending strength (elasticity) in order that rigidity of the push lever as well as mutual retention and mechanical strength of the locking structure are improved without adversely affecting easiness of connecting the connectors with each other or disengaging them from each other. Further, the bridging members integrally formed with both sides of the connector housing will guard the push lever. Any adjacent foreign wire ends will no longer catch or move the push lever, thus protesting the lock arm from any unintentional disengagement from the lug.